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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Blog Ring of Power Interview with Lynda Williams

This week Lynda Williams is the Blog Ring of Power's guest. Lynda
Williams is the author of the ten-novel Okal Rel Saga (Edge Science Fiction and
Fantasy Publishing) and the editor of the Okal Rel Legacies series (Absolute
Xpress). She hosts the Writer’s Craft on the Clarion Blog with David Lott. On
Reality Skimming (okalrel.org/blog), she works with David Juniper, Tegan Lott
and Michelle Carraway to celebrate the Okal Rel Universe in particular and the
joy of writing and reading in general. See http://okalrel.org/blog/contribute/ for how to take part on Reality
Skimming to promote your work or share your love of words and ideas.

So yea, I am excited to have Lynda as a guest here on The Write Time. Today she is talking about her current work.

About Your
Current Work

Tell us about your new book and when it is out? Where can people
purchase it?

My next installment in the saga will be
Part 8: Gathering Storm, forthcoming from Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy by
the end of 2012. It will be available in book stores like Chapters for a short
while. However, as trade paperbacks from a small but splendid Canadian
publisher, my books are typically available a long time by special order but
rarely stocked from book 1 forward. So you’ll probably find only the latest on
the shelf without making a special request. If you do spot ORU books “in the
wild” we are always excited to have a photo and report it on Reality Skimming.
Send sightings or anything else you feel like sharing to Lynda(at)okalrel.org
and michelle(at)okalrel.org and okalrel(at)gmail.com for the fastest response.
Okal Rel Legacies titles are available at cons where Edge Science Fiction and
Fantasy appears, as are the Saga titles. All can be ordered through Amazon, of
course, and are in kindle format for reading on your favorite handheld device.
Forthcoming titles in the legacies series included novellas by authors Craig
Bowlsby and Hal Friesen and the Opus 6 anthology of short stories set in the
Okal Rel Universe, published by Absolute Xpress, an imprint of Hades
Publications.

Is there anything new, unusual, or interesting about your book? How
is it different from other books on the same subject?

My books teem with bold characters so
real they talk to you in your head for days after you finish reading about them.
I’m proud to hear people tell me so. My books explore sexual politics and power
dynamics in fully-realized cultures based on divergent paths taken by mankind
1,000 years earlier. My books are about how we cope with technology and the
right and wrong way to behave if you are one of the lucky few who gain mastery
of it before everyone else. They are about how cultures regulate themselves,
cultural relativity, and whether there are ultimate answers to what is right
and what is wrong in a competitive universe. But mostly I love the people in
them and the people in the real world my characters connect me with who keep me
hoping it is all worthwhile.

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

Getting back into the head space. My
life took an unexpectedly rocky turn that forced me to reverse engines on the
creative front and shove all the ideas into a box until I had time for them. I
took myself to Starbucks on Saturdays and re-read earlier work until I got in
the groove. Then I wrote until I was too tired to stay away or Starbucks
closed. It sort of saved my soul to discover I could still transport myself
into the story and write out what was planned like it was happening, once I got
“there”. I had days when I was afraid it was gone for good. And if it wasn’t,
it ought to be. I will be forever grateful to my daughter, Angela Lott, in
particular for helping me to keep believing in dreams through the months
concerned. You can see some of her work on youtube if you search for Okal Rel
there. She also wrote me a fabulous tribute to one of her favorite characters
and gave it to me as a gift. I plan to use a suitable excerpt in Opus 6.

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

Samanda O’Pearl is a girly-girl
preoccupied by gaining social status via marriage. I grew up rejecting this
kind of heroine (despite loving Austen’s Pride and Prejudice), so it surprised
me to find I had so much fun writing Sam’s triumphant homecoming to her
middle-class family on Clara’s World. I think, in part, I was reminiscing about
the spirit of my own childhood, with its mundane, loving and stable family life
enlivened by vigorous make-believing and a love of literature. Or maybe the
contrast with the dire events in progress elsewhere in the story made it
pleasurable. Sam does some growing up in books 8 and 9. Amel’s got most of his
growing up done by then, and it’s always rewarding to write a character who
evolves, emotionally, in the scope of a work.

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

Yes. I learned the Demish characters
were interesting and deserved to have their story told, as well. Let me
explain. In the Okal Rel universe the Demish are the stodgy conservatives.
Think of Victorian England. Vrellish characters are more fun because they are
over-sexed and hyperactive. Lorels have a predilection for making long-term
plans on behalf of all mankind and being science geniuses. Characters from all
empire racial groups (or sub-species of Sevolite might be more accurate) figure
in all the books. The ten novel saga chronicles the start of big changes in a
system that’s been more or less stable for nearly 1,000 years. But the Demish
only start to feel the heat around Book 7: Healer’s Sword. And react by digging
in their heels, like good conservatives. The trope of stodgy conservatives
clinging to power in the face of brave new ideas is one I grew up with in
Science Fiction. And I follow it to some extent. But nothing is ever simple in
the Okal Rel Universe and Part 8: Gathering Storm deals with the shocks
starting to shake the equilibrium, often from the perspective of the Demish
instead of that of the clever trouble-makers.

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in
this book?

Fix the typos! There always seem to be
typos. I hate them.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Oh yes! There always is. But I’ve
learned to make my case in what I write and how I present it, and let people
conclude what they will. I believe I’ve put plenty of meat into the sandwich to
chew on. And I never come down 100% on one side of any argument, myself. Well,
hardly ever. I really, really meant people to feel Ev’rel was a bad, bad person
for what she does to Amel in Part 4: Throne Price, but some people think
otherwise. I’ve decided I’m okay with it so long as I’ve portrayed my argument
as clearly and honestly as I could including what those who disagree with me
use for ammunition. I think I failed to anticipate how strongly Ev’rel being
female would cloud the issue of power dynamics I intended to portray in a
reverse-gender-dynamics way, to make my point. But the Amel/Ev’rel business is
just a detail in the larger scope of the Okal Rel Saga. I suppose if there’s an
overall message it is this: we don’t live in a video game, our actions count.
People get hurt. People succeed or fail. We are part of a greater, interacting
whole, and no one can act in isolation from the consequences of their behavior.
We are no angels but if we don’t acknowledge the universality of social mechanisms
for controlling destructive behavior, we will certainly end our days as a
species as profound fools.

Tell us about your book’s cover – where did the design come from
and what was the design process like?

I am blessed in my cover artist
Michelle Milburn. She has read the books and shares a lot of the vision with
me. She and I and the publisher discuss ideas, she drafts a cover, and then the
publisher has to approve it. We usually have a bit of back and forth there. But
so far so good. And I am keeping my fingers crossed that Michelle will keep
doing the covers through to the end of Part 10: Unholy Science.

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Speculitive Fiction Member Since 2011

About Me

I've lived from New York to California, Washington to Texas, and several places in between. Love the Rocky Mountains, where I spent over 18 years, and I enjoy the heartland. I currently reside in Mississippi with my wife and two of my five children and two cats. A dog would be most welcome, but my wife is not overly fond of critters, she and the cats tolerate one another.
I write Speculative Fiction, mainly Fantasy, and Science Fiction. My current project is an epic fantasy that has a mind of its own.
I also enjoys photography, camping, reading, good movies, and of course telling fun stories.